Verification

At least one third of all FAFSA applications will be selected by the Department of Education for verification. Students will be notified that their application has been selected for verification on their Student Aid Report (SAR) from the Department of Education. Financial aid awards cannot be finalized until the Financial Aid Office has completed the verification of your financial aid application. If your application has been selected for verification, please submit the following documents to the Financial Aid Office:

Student's prior year W-2 Form(s) - only for students who did not complete a Federal income tax return

Parents' prior year W-2 Form(s) - only for parents who did not complete a Federal income tax return

Student's prior year IRS Tax Transcript - only for students who completed a Federal income tax return, paid their IRS tax liability, if applicable, and didn't use the IRS Data Retrieval Process on the FAFSA

Parent's prior year IRS Tax Transcript - only for parents who completed a Federal income tax return, paid their IRS tax liability, if applicable, and didn't use the IRS Data Retrieval Process on the FAFSA

FAFSA Correction Using the IRS Data Retrieval Process

This process is available to the student and/or parent tax filer within 2 weeks after electronically filing your prior year Federal income tax return (6-8 weeks if the tax return is filed by paper) and paying your IRS tax liability, if applicable. This is the fastest, easiest and most accurate way to include your final prior year Federal income tax information on the FAFSA application.

Federal income tax filers (students and parents) who elect not to use the IRS Data Retrieval Process or do not qualify to use the IRS Data Retrieval Process must submit an IRS Tax Transcript to the Financial Aid Office. To request a transcript free of charge from the IRS, select one of the following methods. Your prior year Federal income tax return must be accepted by the IRS and you must pay your prior year IRS tax liability, if applicable, before you can request a transcript.

In the Tools Section of the homepage, click on "Get Transcript for My Tax Records".

You may click on the "Get Transcript ONLINE" box and follow the instructions that will allow you to print out prior year return transcript(s) immediately OR

You may click on the "Get Transcript by Mail" box and Enter the tax filer's Social Security Number, date of birth, street address, and zip code. (Be sure to use the address currently on file with the IRS). Click Continue; In the Type of Transcript drop-down box choose, "Return Transcript' and in the Tax Year drop-down box, select "prior year". If successfully validated, tax filers can expect to receive paper IRS Tax Transcript(s) in the mail within 5 - 10 days.

**If you are unable to obtain the required prior year Federal Tax Return Transcript(s) by using one of the above methods you will need to contact the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 or visit your local Internal Revenue Service Office to obtain a copy.

Process for Non-Tax Filers

Students and parents who are not required to file a prior year Federal income tax return must submit copies of their prior year W-2 forms to confirm income earned from work. If no income was earned, please check the appropriate box on the front of this worksheet